Who played against whom and how?
Which game couldn’t you miss?
Dortmund against Bayern. BVB is still a rival to Munich, although no longer in the championship race, but there is always something possible in a single game. It didn’t take much to win. For the opening goal, Jamie Gittens outwitted Konrad Laimer where the center and sidelines intersect, who then ran after him in vain. On the way to the goal, no other Bavarian stood in the way of the Dortmund player. Except Manuel Neuer, but he can no longer shrink the goal like he once did. A move like from American football (i.e. pass forward and run). Dortmund then defended with a lot of heart. It was Jamal Musiala again who saved Bayern shortly before the end. Again with a header. He was also free because Niklas Süle was shot while he was standing in the wall. As he cheered, Musiala pointed to his head to express surprise. A gesture that wears out when you perform it every two weeks because you’ve headed another goal.
It was a duel that both teams fought with passion. But technically you can expect a little more from the two biggest German clubs, and the combination play, especially from Dortmund, was amazing. The ball rarely went through more than three stations. Bayern remain unbeaten in the league. Against their three strongest competitors Frankfurt, Leverkusen and Dortmund they didn’t win either. The comparisons with the Guardiola era that you hear about here and there are exaggerated. Now Harry Kane is also out, for example in the cup game against Leverkusen this week. Without any influence from the opponent, he suffered a “slight muscle fiber tear” in Dortmund, as the club announced. Bayern don’t have a second “9er”.
Which game could you have missed with a clear conscience?
Leipzig against Wolfsburg. Anyone who had bet on Leipzig as a title candidate before the season or who was hoping for them as a competitor to Bayern will not have their hopes up this year either. The result, 1:5 against Wolfsburg, sounds harder than the true balance of power on the pitch would suggest, because initially every shot from the guests went in. But Leipzig has to be careful not to end up in midfield. There are hardly any real top teams in the Bundesliga, but the race for places behind Bayern has become tighter.
Who was in the spotlight?
Manolis Saliakas, a footballer from Crete. He scored the first home goal of the season for FC St. Pauli. His shot bounced off the inside post and into the goal. His team then scored two more times and beat Holstein Kiel 3-1. Even though they had to wait so long for their first cheer at home, the players from Millerntor seem stronger than the competition from even further north and even more so than those from Bochum. St. Pauli has now overtaken Heidenheim. They are experiencing their first low since promotion to the Bundesliga a year and a half ago. They haven’t been able to win seven times in a row, and 0-4 at home reads as a bit of a crisis.
